City charity’s £500,000 windfall

Former Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and a generous anonymous donor helped City charity the October Club raise £500,000 for the Encephalitis Society at its annual Savoy dinner this week.

According to the society, which provides information, support, awareness and research on the rare brain inflammation condition, an anonymous donor guaranteed on the night that the event, traditionally attended by the great and the good of the equities space, would raise that sum.

Funds were also raised through a charity auction, with popular lots including a private swimming lesson for 10 people with British Olympic double gold-medalist Adlington – present at the event - and a lunch with the cast of hit TV show Downton Abbey. Adlington, an ambassador for the charity, called it an “incredible night”.

The charity now has three years to spend the windfall on their specific project, with funding going to create a communications role to increase awareness and a neuro-psychologist role to provide specialist support for those afflicted by the condition.

Ava Easton, chief executive of the charity, said: “The proceeds from the event will have a truly transformational effect on our charity, and will enable immediate and lasting benefits for our members and the people we support.”

Wednesday night’s windfall will add to the almost £9 million raised for good causes by the charity, which began with a dinner for leukemia sufferers in 1987. The Club chooses an annual beneficiary, generally a small and growing UK charity with voluntary income of between £500,000 and £2 million.

Mark Pumfrey, head of Emea at Liquidnet and the October Club's chairman, said that the event had been a "terrific night" raising funds for a "very worthwhile cause."

"These funds will truly transform their ability to raise awareness of this terrible disease and support those afflicted and their families,“ he added.

Pumfrey spoke to Financial News last month about the process behind choosing the Society.

“The absolute ethos of the club is to find a charity where we can generally transform what they do. They identified a specific project that they would like us to fund, and Ava Easton [ the chief executive of the Society ] really stood at the corner of what we do.”

To read more about the October Club and its work, visit this piece from Financial News http://bit.ly/19COYaU